When Erik Morales stops fighting?

Until when a warrior would say “that’s it” and call it a career? Boxing is a dangerous sport. The more a fighter aged, the more possibilities that his abilities will diminished. Not all fighters are born like Bernard Hopkins.

Erik Morales is no Bernard Hopkins.

And yet, even how disciplined “The Alien” inside and outside the ring, time will come for signs and symptoms that will tell him to quit and that’s it.

But not all fighters who felt these signs and symptoms quit. There are really stubborn fighters who only quit when it’s too late. They don’t listen to their hearts that tell them it’s time to quit. They let their bodies decide. They let their bodies quit.

This is dangerous when they choose to let their bodies push them out of the sport. This means that they feel something serious already that will not allow them fight anymore. It would mean permanent physical disabilities that will rob fighters and their family’s happiness after boxing.

In the case of Erik “El Terrible” Morales 52-9-0 (KO 36), I believe he should have not came out of retirement after suffering four consecutive losses. He lost to Zahir Raheem in 2005, twice against Manny Pacquiao in 2006 (via stoppage), and David Diaz in 2007. He retired in the same year but came back in 2010 and got three consecutive victories against lesser opposition.

In search for further glory and to rejuvenate his already stellar career, Morales took younger and dangerous Marcos Maidana and dropped to a majority decision in 2011. He won against Pablo Cesar Cano also in 2011. The MD loss and won via RTD convinced Morales to go on fighting. But this sport will not come short of younger, hungrier breed of lions.

“El Terrible” fought undefeated Danny Garcia for the vacant light welterweight title. He lost via UD in the first encounter and was KO’ed viciously in the rematch.

Morales loss over Garcia, for me, is the second warning for him to quit and call it a career. I’m sad when I saw the great four-division titlist, Erik Morales, endured what it seems to be looked like career ending blows. How many blows like that, can a now, 37 years old Erik Morales may take because he’s staging another comeback fight. Yes! He’s fighting again.

“Many criticize me or ask me, ‘Why do I keep on boxing at my age and after everything I’ve accomplished?’ I tell them that I am pursuing a dream.” Morales said translated from Spanish on Wednesday at the news conference in Monterrey, Mexico.

“I’d like to achieve a few more things. I don’t want to go back to my house wondering, ‘Why didn’t I try it?’ And even if I face a hungry young challenger, I need to win to achieve my dream.”

I don’t know what dreams Erik Morales is chasing at this point in his boxing career. I hope his pursuit of this “dream” will not turn into a “nightmare”.